Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, July 26, 1915, Page 1

Eastland Victims About 1,000 .Mm,— 4 —— e ey G T I e 2 i NEWS SECTION PAGES ONE TO EIGHT THE WEATHER 1 Unsestled THE OMAHA DAILY BEE VOL. XLV—NO. 32. On Trains, News Mten SINGLE OMAHA, MONDAY MORNING, JULY 26, 1915—TWELVE PAG VU)PY 7’1'\\’() CENTS. at Motel oo, Bo MAGNITUDE OF CATASTROPHE APPALLS CITY Grief-Stricken Thousands Are Searching Through Morgue for Bodies of Friends and Rela- tives Among Victims. WORK OF RELIEF UNDER WAY Coroner Issues Appeal to Puhlicf for Funds to Bury Unidenti- fied Dead. PRAYERS OFFERED IN CHURCHES | CHICAGO, July %.-The Fastland lies | on its side in the river with divers still | founde through th interior of N\n] steel coffin and burrowing undee ft, | while Chicago, uppalled, is just beginning | to realize the significance of one of the greatest of marine disasters, costing 1,000 lives. While grief-stricken thousands are searching through the morgue In the Sec- | ong regiment armory for friends or rola- tives, state and federal officials have turned, their attention to placing the blame for the catastrophie and the work of paving rellef of those left destitute. Acting Mayor, Moorhouse and his ad- visors at a meeting today began raising a rellef fund of $200,000 to be distributed by a subcommittee acting under the di- rection of the National Red Cross, the Associated Charities and the municical health department. Contribotion of Compans In addition to this, the Western Elec- tric company, whose help formed the | majority of the flk-fated excursion party, has announced that $100,000 from its em- | ploves' insurance funds i available for | rellef. | Numerous private also been started. Meanwhile, Mayor Thompson, who was | at the Panama-Pacific exposition to takc part in the ceremonles in celebration of Illinois day, is speeding toward Chicago on a speclal train to take his place in the direction of the relief work Coroner Hoffman today issued an up- rellef funds have “EASTLAND” FXCURSION BOAT HORROR AT CHICAGO: Photograph of iST OF THE DEAD the overturned steamer showing the rescue work in progress through the IN SHIP DISASTER View of loads cn |disaster. side and the crowds o moved from capsize§ | Immense numbers of people \gather to see dead taken from river. lgs el following CHICAGO RELIER WORK ORGANLZED Fund of $200,000 is Raised on Short Notice to Help to Care for the Sufferers. peal to the public for a fund for th-}mme MEN ON COMMITTEE burfal of unidentified dead. In churches and homes throughout the city today were offered prayers for the suffering -and victime. TEhe day was ono of gloom. The sky was cloudy and a mist hung.jo-the.alr. There was more than the vsual Sabbuth quiet everywhere and the crowds of out-door pleasure seekers were thin. As was the case yes- terday, base ball games were postponed, two double-headers being set back be- cause of the Eastland horror. Varlons Theories Discussed. Various theories as to what caused the Eastland to turn over still are being dis- cussed, but without a prospect of a defi- | nite explanation until the coroner's in- quest and the federal government's in- westigation, to be begua tomorrow, are | finished. The most discussed theorles are as fol- lows: That the boat was overcrowded; that it was not properly ballasted; that the tug that made fast to warp, the East- land fast to the docks started pulling too tast; that congestion of passengers rush- ing to the port side, attracted by some passing senation, tipped the steamer over. Drown Within Grasp of Bank. very effort was made by thousands of persons on the river wharf to rescue the drowning men, women and children. But many drowned almost within grasp of the river bank. Mothers went to their death while their children were snatched to safety. Other children died in the arms of thelr parents who were finally saved. Hundreds of girls, freed for a day from their tasks of making tele phones and other electrical apparatus in the factory of the Western Electric com- pany, Jdrcssed in their smartest white frocks, drowned miserably. Kolin avenue, a small street near the factory of the Western Electric com- pany, was in universal mourning to- night. its oceupants in the disaster. And many of the li-fated residents of this street to- night, lay in the morgue, or beneath the stéel hull of the Hastland, over which searchlights shot their blinding glare while hundreds of men searched for more bodles. A s Are Made. Efforts to discover the cause of the accident, were begun long before the Federal and grand juries were ordered, a tmpapelied aud all the | work of rescue was over. county e Two, Column Two.) | The Weather CHICAGO, July 25.—At a meeting of the mayor's citizens' advisory immediately raige a fund of §200,000 by public subscription for the relief of the families of the Eastland vie- tims. In addition to this sum of- ficlals of the Western Electric com- pany, who attended the conference held in the mayor's office, announced that the Employes Benefit assocla- tion had $100,000 available for re- liet work. The Western Electric company officlals stated that not more than one-thrd of the victims were employes of the com- pany, the others being members of the employes' families and friends. A committee composed of Jullus Rosen- wald, chairman; J. B. Forgan, A. A. Sprague, John Scott, R. J. Dunham, James A. Pugh, B. E. Sunny, W. A Gardner, Cyrus H. McCormick, E. J. Buf- fington, George M. Reynolds and James Simpson, was appointed to obtain sub- scriptions to the relief fund. Big Fund Guaranteed. Acting Mayor Moorhouse said the $300,- 000 reliet. fund was guaranteed by the sub-committee and would be available for use within twenty-four hours. The relief work will be in charge of the National Red Cross, the Assoclated Charitles of Chicago and the city healtn department. At noon today, Acting Mayor Moor- house telegraphed a detailed report of the relief work begun to Mayor W. H. Thompson. Mayer Thompson affirmed everything that had been done and re- Kvery house lost from one to all | plied that he would leave San Francisco late today on & special train and ex- pected to arrive in Chicago next Wed- nesday morning. Rellef Committee. The following committee was named to assume direction of the relief work: Health Commissioner Dr. John Dill Robertson, chairman. Danlel J. Schuyler, secretary. Charles H. Wacker. Chief of Police Charles C. Healy. J. J. O'Connor of the National Red Cross soclety. A. A, Sorague. Willlam P. Sideley, vice president of Western Electric company. Rev. John P. Brushingham. Managers of Chicago theaters instead of closing thelr places of amusement to- daoy announced they would keep them Temperatare at Omaba Yesterday.|(0¥ STERCRCE U Tl e of the re- C Hour. Tem, | celpts to the relief fund. A [ All to Atd in Rellef. H) % | The entire force of the city government 9w 61| wil be at the disposal of the National w0 % | Red Cross society, Acting Mayor Moor- 3 3 | house announced today. He sald that ip.m 73 | nurses of the health department were ;g‘ = D | siving attention to mourning familles. -8 75| The department of public welfare, in 5p. m. 75 | charge of Mrs. Louise Osborne Rowe, ;g n * 13 | ovened a bureau of information and used Comparative Loeal Reeord. its employes in the rellef work Otficlal record of temperature and pre- | Ernest P. Bicknell. natioual director cipitation compared with the correspond- [of the National Red Cross, arrived in ing period of the last lhrlr eart s JHighest terd: e st yesterday [ ‘I.;o est yesterday Chicago tonight to take part in the re- lief work, “Chicago is mnobly responding to the call for rellef and we will not need ‘l‘nmre ure sistance from outside the city,” sald nres from the no Acting Mayor Moorhouse, “We have an March J. and combared with the last | erricient organization, all the money P’:{T‘ lemmnlur: . needed and every care of the sufferers ckency for the day . » DAlacs i 6ihee M.n,-h will be promptly relieved. Normal precipitation A Deficlency for the day . Preclvitation since March 1..16.18 inches Deficiency since March 1 67 inch Deficiency for cor. period,1914. 2.7 Inches Deficlency Acting Mayor Moorbouse recelyed hun- dreds of telegrams from officials of cities all over the United States and also in Canada, expressing sorrow at Chicago's y for cor. perfod, 1913. 2.84 inches ‘une: and offering aid. committee, called by Ac Ma k Moorhouse~tsaay, Tt was %‘:ed' to] RIFTH RUSS ARMY |Specil Train t t | NO LONGER EXISTS| “Sgnerer fi‘y peir ¥R Czar’s Forces Operating in Courland 7 Defeated and Dispersed by von Buelow. ‘When Stecher comes to town there will | be & crowd at Ak-Sar-Ben Den He 18| due to be at the Den August 16. That | ‘dfile will be known as Stecher night at the Den. | IMMENSE BOOTY IS CAPTURED! George wolz of Fremont is one of the | —_ | busy-bodies arranging for a special train BERLIN, July 25.—The following 1 bring the Dodge county crowds 1o officlal German statement was is- Omaha on that night for the initiation sued: | and entertainment at the Den. He has| *Bastern theater of war: announced that the train will be run ¥ from the town of Dodge 8o that everyone ‘General von Buelow has defeated 4, podge county will have wn oppor- the fifth Russian army near Shavll. ' tunity to come, “After ten days of continuous| Joe Stecher is to stage a wrestiing bout troops yesterday succeeded in arrest-| ... ccixsors hold on that occasion. ing the retreat of the Russians in| the district of Rozalin-Szadow and| defeated and dispersed them. The booty since the beginning of these operations on July 14 has inereased to twenty-five cannon, forty machine guns, more than 100 cars loaded with spumuaition, 8 areet quaptiy} L sluking s French steamer and of baggage and other war materlal. i, "y ey trawiers. One of the un- “On the Narew river the army of |ger.sea boats is veported to have been General von Gallwitz stormed irre-|destroyed by bombs and gun fire. sistibly the fortresses of Rozan and Pultsk and forced a crossing of m.{MYSTERIOUS FIRE FOLLOWS Narew between these places. Strong BLAST ON ENGLISH SHIP! forces are on the south bank of the German Submarine Sink Five Cessels i LONDON, July %.—eGrman submarines today resumed thelr activity in English river. * Further north and to the) wyyw yoRrk, July %.—An explosion of | south, our troops are advancing to-|unknown origin occurred in the forward ward the river.” Two Russian Ships Sunk, LONDON, July®%.—The Russian ship Rubonia has been torpedoed and sunk by a submarine. Ity crew of thirty was landed on the Orkney Islands. The ilruwhr Star of Peace was also torpedoed and sunk off the Orkneys. It crew was hold of the British freight steamer Crag- #ide at its dock in the Hudson river here today and was foilowed by a fire, which, however, was speedily checked. The | Cragside, which was to leave here to- | night for an English port with a cargo of 100,000 bags of sugar, will be delayed for a few days The fire and water damage teamer was estimated at $19,000 to the | tions from { tonight landed ut Stromness, | ious spectators'drawn to the spot. | l iy BRINGING OUT THE DEAD BODIES of unfortunate victims of the sunken steamer just after it went down. |BERNSTORFF AIDES FIND A LOOPHOLE Regard Fact U. 8. Will Not Insist on Abandonment of U Attacks as Concession. ENVOY LEAVES THE CAPITAL WASHINGTON, July 26.—Count von Bernstorff, the German ambas- sador, left Washingtor today to re- main from the capital until instruc- his government or new developments make it necessary for him to confer again with officials here. It was learned in German cifcles here that the German interpretation of the statement in the last American note that the lives of non-combatants may not be put in jeopardy unless a ves- sel resists or weeks escape, was taken to satisfy the German military authorities of the fact that the United States has not insisted on & complete abandonment of submarine warfare as such. It is the belief that this point would be considered as a concession and would add weight to that element of officlal and public opinion in Germany which (s ursing & more conclliatory attitude toward the United States. Standard Stands Pat, Men Do the S8ame, NEW YORK, July 8.-The Bayoone strikers were notified late tonight by officials of the Standard Ofl company of New Jersey that the company would not accede to the demands of the strikers. The strikers immediately called a meet- ing and decided not to return to work on Monday. SCENES OF TRAGEDY | | Sorrow, Spread Over City, Hangs Lowest in Armory Where Dead Are Piled. HEARSES CONGEST THE STREET CHICAGO, July 25, — Borrow, which spread over the city with the Funds of homes, hung lowest today I'over the silent forms of the victithn {in the drill room of the Second regl- ment armory, Chicago's temporary morgue. Bide by side they lay, from one end of the hall to the other, with narrow path- WAYs Dbetween, alorns which slowly {walked mnxious hundreds seeking to {identity & missing loved one. Time and |again o group would pausé beside a piti- tul burdle. There would be a gasp, a low-volco exclamation, & merciful flow of tears and another would be taken from the list of unidentified dead and placed in the known column. Load on Load Reoelve All through the night load after load of bodies were recelved at the morgue, and through the mofning, at less fro- quent intervals, the procession continued. While the victims were bing identified, Ififty undertakers and forty embalmers |who had voluntesred at fhe call of Cor- {oner Hoffman worker rapidly in a space &t the north end of the hall, preparing the bodies for burial. { As the morning wore along the Curtis | street front of the '~ armory become crowded with hearses, and the incoming stream of bodies from the Improvised morgues and the overturned vessel was passod by another line of bodies, iden- titled and in the keeping of an undéers taker, Preparations Perfect. Before & body passed out the identifi- cation was recorded by a depuly coroner and the name of the mearest - relative Iplaced on file. Bo perfect had been the preparations for the work of the coromer |that from noon until 1 o'clock more than 100 bodies were taken away, and a few hours later less than 200 bodies remained in the temporary morgue. | Approximately 5,00 persons, most of thiem friends or relatives of victims, had gathered about the armory before noon today. Two and three abreast the lines extended along two sides of the armory square and a block east in Randolph stroet, Two and three hundred at & time they were admitted and when all of one group | had pussed out another took its place. ‘Price of Grain and Fodder Regulated - Throughout Germany BERLIN, July 2.~(By Wireless to Say- ville).~The federal council has issued its long-expected order regulating prices for necessaries of life, and especially srain und fodder. . The order provides that severe punishment suall be dealt dealers who unduly Increase prices or withhold articles of food for'the pur- wose of artificlally ralsing prices. The German emplre Is divided Into four | aistricts h of thirty-two departments, | | waere pr vary, according to the spe clal conditions. Corn prices remain about the same fig- | ure as herctofore. The price of rice is | fixed wt 220 marks (355) per ton for the Berlin district, at 215 marks (363.75) for | the eastern district and 20 marks (57.50) | for the western district The price of wheat ls fixed at 40 marks (510) above that of rye, and be- #ioning with & certain date the regula- 'h AT CHICAGO MORGUE RENA'HS AT 1,000 Eastland Late Sunday Night Had Given Up 820 of Bodies of Vie- tims with Many Still in River. SIXTY ARE RECOVERED IN DAY Divers Believe All Removed from Vese]l Except Those Crushed in Mud Under Port Side. |RESCUERS CONTINUE THE WORK CHICAGO, July 26.—The death ship East!and, had tonight given up the bodles of 820 of its dead. The estimated total number of those who went down to death in the Chicago river yesterday morning when the steamer bearing 2,400 excursionists rolled over at its dock remained at approximately 1,000. Of the 4% persons on board at the time of the catastrophe, 1072, including the crew of seventy-two, have reported o enfe. Of the B33 thus remaining unac~ counted for, It is belleved 400 are allve and falled to report, and that 158 bodies still ave in the river. Sixty Bodies Recovered. About three score hodles were recov- ered today. By noon today, divers had concluded that all bodies had been re- maved save those that may have been crushed into the mud under the Baste and's port side and those that had gone down the river with the current. Under he glare of serachlights and arc lights strung about the ship rescuers are cons tinuing their work tonight. Rodies Are Semt Up. While those on land were disposing of the dead, infured and rescued, the divers in the heart of the sunken yessel sent up an almost constant stream of corpses from the submerged decks. First it was o gally-dréased girl In her teens, who had been caught between a pile of chalrs and o cabin wall' Next it was a boy, . | §athered from the lifeless arms of his Hastland dissster and engulfed thou h athan . Than. fokowsd - an..ol, womsn who had gone aboard the ship to watoch her grandehildren, or a little kirl with hare legs und with ribbon matted against the_lace of her holiday gown. One thrill passed through the crowd as word came frum the steamer that s #irl baby had been found alive among the dead. The child was discovered in & tarboard statercom, where she had been held from the water by a ohalr that jammed agalnst the berth. The baby only half awakened as it was carried to land. Its mother could not be found. Two women were found alive in an- other stateroom on the protruding side of the Eastland, but that ended the hopes that any number had escaped death In the death trap itself. There were still @t least 300 persons in the hold when these three persont were taken out alive, and the explorers of the hulk said that all were dead. Grand Jury to Investigate, Yot amidst all the horror and hearts aches officlals of the various depart- ments attended to pressing Auties of disposition of the dead and injured, trac- Ing of the missing, Inquiry Into the cause of the disaster and precautions against disease from sunken bodies and the can- rying of corpses up the river toward the canal locks. Federal Judge Landis ordered a grand jury impanelled to in- vestigate the accident. The state's attorney started an inves- tigation. The coroner imipanelled a jury to inquire Into the deaths, police ar- restec all of the officers of the Hast- land and the health commissioner ar- ranged to purify the river, for fear disease might be spread by the presence of so many bodies in the stream. Arrangements were made to get at the sunken vessel to determine the underly- Ing causes of the accident. Derricks were taken to the side of the Eastland and mariners were engaged to make an in- spection of the treacherous ship. THE WANT-AD, WAY The reason that the man hers shown Wears such a smniling “eny Is_that he nearly every day Uses the WART AL sha-e. And he never never fails On the days he dogs not use iy To take enongh time off To carefully Wow this man's 1s tncreasing paper Is The ¥y he's 's_using If you have money to invest in able concerns. if you need a ‘u-" additional capital in your bus! Will find what vou desire in THE B NESS CHANCE columns of OMAHA BEE, or Telephone Tyler tions provide for a bi-weekly increase of 1% wmarks (37 cents) per ton And Put an Ad in The Omasha Bea, B ra